Halo Chapter 1 NejiSakura
by Snoe-Leigh
Summary: Neji was sure he was going to die in the POW camp, and on the edge of despair he saw a beautiful angel: her compassion, courage and innocence awakened in him an iexquisite longing and tenderness.


The air was suffocating. Saturated with the stench of sweat, blood, and human defecation. Stagnate and heavy. Moving was like being neck deep in sewage. The night's breath was so tense that her skin didn't have room to crawl in disgust. She wanted to vomit, but couldn't stand the taste of the shit they would feed her a second time.

Sakura had trouble sleeping at night. Each night an unwanted symphony waded through her thoughts. The endless chirping of crickets, along with squeals and howls of other animals. A radio in the guards' hut competes with the wild life. She didn't even know if he ever changed the station. It wouldn't matter any way. The only music that ever came in was broken classical.

All these sounds became secondary to the moans and screams coming from torture huts next to them. It's amazing how much a person changes when gripped with fear and pain. She had heard some of the toughest men; officers who had demanded a great deal of respect from their subordinates, piss themselves and beg, but some just curse out their captors till the words become so inaudible that she couldn't understand them anymore.

Sakura clenched her fists so tightly that she was sure blood was trickling down to splatter on the muddy foilage below. She could actually feel heat radiating off of her, the anger was building so quickly. A gloved hand rested on her shoulder, followed by a shallow whisper.

"Sakura, you must calm down or they will sense us."

Kakashi's words only infuraited her more. Her pride screamed "Damn them all!" and to just rush in guns blazing, but her intelligence said that he was right. She inhaled through her nostrils and then let out a quick small breath calming her too wound up nerves.

For 3 days she and her squad had set up camp close enough to enemy lines to observe them and hear them with their acute ninja hearing, but still remain a short distance away to go unnoticed.

Her and the elite Konoha squad were there to rescue prisoners of war, allies to them, and even a few of their own that had recently been captured. It sickened her to think that the men and women that she knew where there right now being tortured, or worse, and she sat at her post with the others observing, bidding their time until the oppertune moment.

Tonight would be their oppertune moment.

The air on that infamous night smelt muddy and sodden from the heavy rain that fallen late that evening. Sakura and Kakashi's unit was sent to maintain a small outpost, northeast of the "camp".

Stealthfully they had entered the camp, surrounded all of its captees and their tormentors. She heard the roar that causes every nin to grab for any weapon available and charge. She ran out into the darkness, the hair on her neck was held down by rivers of cold sweat. A blast close by was like a hammer to her temple. The shock wave nearly knocked her over, displacing any tents or makeshift shelters near by. The sound ripped through her head, causing her to go partially deaf in her left ear. By divine grace, or wicked punishment, she was spared by a large fire attack and was thus destined to fight on.

All around Sakura she could see similar scenes unfolding. The confusion, the alertness, the anger, the fear. She was so drowned in human contradictions that she nearly forgot her targets. The tat-tat-tat-tat of kunai was heard from the darkness. When a kunai flies close enough to your head you can hear it cry. She scrambled for cover, and slipped into the mud in the process.

Another explosion kicked mud, dirt, and grime onto her face. She clinched her senbon and wiped the grime away as best she could. Lifting her eyes up to see out into the camp, knowing that she was looking for some one, any one, any survivors. Her eyes caught some one, in the midst of all the chaos and war, there he was. One of the most powerful men she had ever known, bloodied, hands tied up to a tree post, welts and lacerations covering his body, his head hung down in a very unnatural position.

"Neji." Sakura whispered his name aloud disbelief in her voice.

At that moment if felt as if all the air was rushed out of her body, she couldn't grasp it even if she had tried, and within that same moment a raging fury bellowed through her. Her focus intent on the man in front of her, she would save him at all costs, she would get him out of this shit hole. The thought of not being able to save another one was almost to much to bear.

As if with out thought, her body moved on its own, her mind filled with fury, grief, loss, revenge, but most of all she was filled with resilience. Memories of those close to her that try as she had she lost them any way.

Surprisingly her trek across the muddy field to Neji had gone uninterupted. The smell of death was in the air. She reached for him, his body was cold but his harsh wounds radiated with heat caused from all of the blood. Anger filled her, he had been tortured. A stunning discovery but a horror to look upon as well. Burn marks covered his body, one in the shape of his own marking. Her heart clenched with sorrow and anger.

At this moment in time she felt something for this other human, something so surreal that the world around her seemed to slow to an almost stop, almost lazily her head scanned the area for any close enemies. All of whom were to concerned or rather preoccupied with their own combat. She carefully undid his bindings and hoisted him fireman style onto her shoulders.

Like a splash of ice water awaking her from a disorienting dream Kakashi called out to her.  
"Sakura!" Kakashi sensei screamed "This way Sakura!"

She saw him at the entrance to the hellish jungle they had come from, scanning the area quickly she made her way across the battle field to him. Cross fire surrounding her, screams and battle cries echoed through out the camp. The air popped and sizzled around her as she approached Kakashi, he offered her help but she was too intent, too sure that she would not let Neji down.

The jungle floor reeked of piss, blood, and earth. Hating to set him down but feeling that it was necessary so very gently she layed Neji down resting his head on a root that extended out like hideous claws. She softly ran her hands over his body finding every fracture and wound, determined to heal what she could if it was a life threatening case.

Close by Kakashi sat watching her as well as the area around them, scanning every few seconds. Paranoid on how close they still where to the "war zone" they had just retreated from.

"Sakura don't drain yourself, we still need to get a safe distance from here and back to Konoha" Kakashi whispered to her.

She heard him through the white noise of her focus, she knew he was right, but she had to drag herself away from healing every wound that covered Neji.

She knew that all limits were self imposed, and she knew she would not give up on this. On him.


End file.
